tiny house adventurer | CRNA

And so it begins…

We had hoped to start our adventure on January 1, 2017. Tornado warnings, torrential rain, and all around crappy weather delayed us. The silver lining is that we got more stuff done inside the tiny house. There are actual pictures and decor on the wall now. Amazing.

But, today. TODAY is the day. I may have sat bolt upright out of bed first thing this morning and said that aloud. This is my favorite day. We started our new life. After socializing with the family on the farm this morning, we began preparing the house for travel. We have a “pre-flight checklist” of sorts that we go through and verbalize to each other so nothing gets left out. All of the normal things like turning the propane off, stabilizing loose objects, securing items in their spots, etc. Some not so “normal” things like emptying the urine in the composting toilet (see future post on that amazing contraption), finding Sheena’s phone (constant battle), digging the jack pads up from the mud and the muck after the said ridiculous rainfall, more etc. We put the dogs in the truck. The humans followed. Without any pomp and circumstance, we started down the insane hill to leave my mom’s farm. We got to the front gate of their 100+ acres traversed by our awesome Dodge Ram 3500 Dually and fantastic gooseneck tiny house and snapped some photos. We actually christened our Christmas present to each other: a Nikon D3400 camera (side note: I cannot wait to learn how to really photograph on this journey!). And then, we were off.

My heart had to have been racing 150bpm. My entire life was now on a little country road. My love, our dogs, our truck, our house… basically everything I hold dear. Everything I need. Everything I want. But then the anxiety turned to laughter. Crazy, unstoppable giggles. I couldn’t stop smiling. Some of that laughter was because of the faces, pointing, and honking of people who had appeared as if they had seen a spaceship. Mostly that unadulterated joy was because of our situation. We have worked so hard to get to this point. Short glimpse into a future post: this is our SECOND tiny house. Our first tiny was, well, abysmal. That’s a whole ‘nother post though. Anyhow, we have been so grateful for our family, including two engineer dads, for all of their help and support. We’re so lucky to have such great people.

We drove to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Then on to our builder’s shop in Cleveland, Tennessee. If anyone anywhere ever considers going tiny, call MIKE BEDSOLE. He is the owner of Tiny House Chattanooga. He. Is. Brilliant. He built the shell of our house (i.e. the trailer, frame, sheathing, insulation, guts of the solar, electric, and water catchment system) while being a mentor for us while we built the inside ourselves. I have loved working with Mike. Unfortunately for him, he has been really accessible to us and has had to talk me off the ledge a few times. He does his research, is accountable, and one of the most down-to-earth people I have ever encountered. Today, just to show he really does have angel wings, he let us crash at his shop for the night. So as I write this, we’re hanging out in our amazing tiny that Mike made possible. Thanks, man.

I made dinner tonight. We’re drinking wine and watching TV via Ross’s crazy satellite system (thanks, babe). I don’t HAVE to do anything. That’s an amazing feeling. Until next time…